The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 12/02/11

We begin with some breaking news from the Republican presidential race tonight. Herman Cain saying he`ll be making a major announcement tomorrow from his home state of Georgia. NBC News` David Gregory is reporting tonight that there are strong indications that Mr. Cain will withdraw from the presidential race tomorrow.

A source close to Mr. Cain saying he wants to shield his family from more fallout from sexual harassment allegations, as well as the claim made this week by a Georgia woman that she and Mr. Cain had a year`s-long extramarital affair. Ginger White, appearing as a guest on MSNBC`s “THE LAST WORD” told Lawrence O`Donnell last night that she came forward about that alleged affair because she believed her past relationship with Mr. Cain had already been leaked to the media.

Mr. Cain has denied the affair with Ms. White but says he had a friendship with her and that he helped her financially. Here`s what Ms. White had to say about that last part last night on “THE LAST WORD.”

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

REPORTER: How much money did you give her I her?

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, because of my attorney and because of things we`re looking at, I can`t talk about that at this particular point.

LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: I can tell you, Ginger White, that that is not a common answer in interviews with presidential candidates. I can`t answer because of my lawyer tells me not to.

Can you remember or tell us what you think the total amounts of money in any given year, how much money he would end up giving you to help you get by?

GINGER WHITE, ALLEGED CAIN`S MISTRESS: Honestly, I`d rather not say. I don`t have an exact amount. So I – you know, I`m just not sure exactly.

O`DONNELL: Did he give you that money in cash?

WHITE: Yes, he did.

O`DONNELL: Always in cash?

WHITE: Always in cash.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: “The Des Moines Register “is reporting today Herman Cain is polling at just 8 percent in their latest survey in Iowa. That`s down from 23 percent only about a month and a half ago. “The Register” noting that while Mr. Cain has denied the affair allegations, poll respondents`, quote, “bad feelings about him doubled from the time the poll was in the field, just from Sunday through Wednesday.”

Again, NBC`s David Gregory reporting tonight that there are strong indications that Mr. Cain will withdraw from the race for the Republican presidential nomination tomorrow.

Now, the Cain campaign is responding to that tonight by telling NBC News that nothing is final as of tonight. The campaign saying no decision has been made. NBC`s reporting, though, again, is that despite that statement from the campaign, a source close to Mr. Cain says all indications are he will resign from the race tomorrow.

For his part, personally, here`s what Herman Cain had to say about the planned announcement earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAIN: There are some challenges and I will say, and before any of the people in the media ask me one more time, I`m going to say what I said before. I am reassessing because of all of this media firestorm stuff. Tomorrow in Atlanta, I will be making an announcement, but nobody`s going to get me to make that prematurely. That`s all there is to that.

So, tomorrow, we`re going to be opening our headquarters in northwest Georgia where we will also clarify, there`s that word again, clarify, exactly what the next steps are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: So if Herman Cain does drop out of the presidential race tomorrow, he will apparently be doing it at the would-be opening of his northwest Georgia campaign headquarters. That would, in fact, be a very bizarre way to end a presidential bid, while you`re opening a new campaign headquarters.

It`s not to say that Herman Cain wouldn`t be the first pioneer to try something like that, but it would be unprecedented. Joining us now from Washington is NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell, the host of “ANDREA MITCHELL REPORTS” on MSNBC and a veteran of several campaigns.

Andrea, thanks very much for being with us tonight.

ANDREA MITCHELL, HOST, “ANDREA MITCHELL REPORTS”: You bet, Rachel.

MADDOW: We`re getting pushback from Herman Cain`s campaign. What is the latest you`re hearing about tomorrow`s announcement? What is NBC`s reporting at this point?

MITCHELL: Our reporting, and David circled back to his source, I`ve talked to other people, our reporting is that every indication is that he will be announcing that he is dropping out tomorrow. But as we said on “Nightly News” and there was no challenge to anything that was reported on “Nightly News.” they did have problems with apparently some of the reiterations in social media on Twitter.

But in terms of what we are reporting, it is that while with the Cain campaign, until he actually announces it, himself, no decision is final. He is certainly leaning toward getting out because of the pressure on his family. This was, tonight, the first face to face meeting with his wife, Gloria.

This has also come amidst a lot of mixed signals. Two new advertisements went up in Iowa. They`re spending money, supporters, his super PAC as well as the Cain campaign, itself. The campaign also today on their Web site launched a new Women for Cain Web site, or part of the Web site, a new online group. And that group is chaired by Gloria Cain.

So they are sending a lot of mixed signals, but there`s a lot of indication, in his own words, where he says he`s reassessing it and that he certainly would be talking to his wife tonight for the first time about what she did not know, by his admission to “The Union Leader,” which was on their front page today, he had not told his wife about his longtime friendship with this Atlanta businesswoman who, as you know, Lawrence extensively interviewed last night.

MADDOW: Andrea, in terms of those mixed signals and in terms of trying to, I guess, clear this vision as best as we can here, is it clear to you who speaks for the candidate and who speaks for the campaign at this time? And even when you`re clear that you are speaking to the actual campaign, is it clear that the campaign and the candidate are always on the same page?

MITCHELL: No, it is not. In fact, this has been one of the hallmarks of this campaign. That the staff don`t necessarily speak for him, that he seeks his own counsel.

He is an unconventional candidate. He would describe himself that way, his business experience and his experience as a motivational speaker, his extensive book tour. That certainly is not typical of a campaign. The fact that he`s been going to not – to locations that are not obvious locations for the campaign, not the early primary states, often. And actually doing what he has done for years is to go out and be on the lecture circuit.

So, this is not a typical campaign. It is not staffed that way. It`s not financed that way. And it`s not at all clear that they are even aware of what his thinking is.

MADDOW: Because this is an atypical campaign, it may be impossible even to extrapolate from past campaign experience. But despite that limitation, with his support plummeting in Iowa and in New Hampshire and across the country, is there any reasonable upside to him staying in the race at this point? Is there a path to the nomination for him at this point?

MITCHELL: There is certainly no path to the nomination. I could say that about as categorically as anyone could.

However, I mean, with his lack of experience, he`s not like a Newt Gingrich who has a lot of Washington experience and money in the bank and the ability to try to reinvent himself. And the proven record of reinventing himself.

Herman Cain will not be able to do this. His support in Iowa among likely Republican caucus-goers has plummeted just in the last few days, when “The Des Moines Register” was in their field with the poll, since this last scandal has hit. And, certainly, it`s gone from 23 percent to 8 percent just since late October, just a few days over a month.

So there is no viable scenario for him to become a viable candidate. However, if he wants to repair his reputation and see if more time on the road and he`s a very effective speaker, he does have a way of appealing to live audiences. If he wants to do that and get more publicity, that is positive publicity, compared to the extraordinarily negative publicity of the Ginger White interview and the reports of the last couple days, that`s something he could do.

I think “The Union Leader” editorial today which says charisma is not enough, was the caption of it, and it went on to blame him for the way he`s handled the last scandal, blame him for not being prepared, adequately prepared to be president of the United States, that is really a serious judgment from a traditionally conservative and very powerful newspaper – a very powerful voice in New Hampshire, the second state.

MADDOW: Andrea Mitchell, host of “ANDREA MITCHELL REPORTS,” weekdays on MSNBC at 1:00 Eastern, and the hardest working woman in this business. I`m very thankful.

MITCHELL: You are, Rachel.

MADDOW: Thank you for your time on a Friday, Andrea. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks.

All right. There`s also news about Republicans who are apparently not thinking about dropping out of the race tonight, particularly the two Republicans who appear to presume that they are each the certain nominee. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and a conservative version of a 99 percenter, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: Just ahead, snuggles. This will make perfect sense in context, but until then, stay tuned for snuggles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: We are coming to you live tonight from the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. I was here to do an event earlier tonight with the great David Letterman. We`ve had a great time. People have been awesome.

Muncie, Indiana, is located right here. That`s about an hour outside the capital of Indiana, the city of Indianapolis. If you drive about an hour north from here and slightly to the west, you will hit a town called Marion, Indiana.

In the early 1990s, Marion, Indiana, was home to a big manufacturing plant that was owned by an office supply company called SCM. That plant made paper products for SCM. About 250 SCM plant workers left their jobs for the July 4th weekend in 1993, and when they returned after the July 4th holiday weekend they found a notice at the plant informing them they had all been fired, on the spot.

SCM had been taken over by another company and they had all lost their jobs. That American economic tragedy was the basis for a series of what are some of the most devastating political ads ever run by a Democrat against a Republican. Those plant workers in Marion, Indiana, were fired after Mitt Romney`s firm, Bain Capital, helped take over SCM in 1993.

A year later, Mitt Romney decided to challenge Ted Kennedy for his U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts.

And here`s how Ted Kennedy ran against Mitt Romney that year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: Mitt Romney`s ads claim he created jobs. But what`s the record? Romney`s firm bought a company called SCM, fired all 350 workers. Told some they could reapply at a 25 percent pay cut. But many who are pregnant or older were denied jobs. And Mitt Romney made $11 million in two years.

Mitt Romney, he`s misled us twice, with negative ads distorting Senator Kennedy`s record and the phony claims about his own.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I worked there 30 years and I never dreamed that I`d lose my job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he`s created jobs, I wish he could create some here. You know, instead of taking them away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Sunday, we were watching television and saw a commercial with Mitt Romney in it saying that he was all for health care benefits and helping the middle class people get their jobs, and I was just stunned because here we are, he has no job, we have no health care benefits, and this Mitt Romney is trying to tell people that that`s what he`s all for and he`s the one responsible for us not having any.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to say to Mitt Romney, if you think you`d make such a good senator, come out here to Marion, Indiana, and see what your company has done to these people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had no rights anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They cut the wages.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We no longer had insurance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically cut our throats.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`d like to say to the people of Massachusetts that if you think it can`t happen to you, think again, because we thought it wouldn`t happen here, either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Mitt Romney lost that election and he lost badly. After taking an early lead in that race against Ted Kennedy, Mr. Romney ended up losing by 17 points.

If Mitt Romney becomes the Republican nominee for president this year, I think you will probably hear that story from Indiana and others like it again. As he travels around the country making the argument that he`s uniquely qualified for the presidency on the basis of his private sector experience, I think he can expect Democrats to point out Mitt Romney`s private sector success may have been very good for Mitt Romney but it really wasn`t all that good for the regular people he threw out of work, whose Americans jobs he shipped overseas – real people in real places like Marion, Indiana.

But, right now, Mitt Romney is not yet the nominee. As he contends with Newt Gingrich to try to get the Republican nomination, you`re already seeing a variation of the 1994 Indiana critique of Mr. Romney, except this time it`s using 21st century language.

This ad just started airing in Iowa from the liberal group, MoveOn.org. Incidentally, I have to say, I`d be surprised if lefty groups like MoveOn.org start running ads right now against Newt Gingrich because I think we`re seeing more and more signs all the time that the left really wants Newt Gingrich to beat Mitt Romney because they really like the idea of Obama running against Gingrich.

So, we`re not seeing a lot of lefty ads against Newt Gingrich right now. But this is the anti-Mitt Romney ad that Move On has just released.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: According to the publisher of New Hampshire`s “Union Leader,” which Republican candidate represents the 1 percent?

Hint: He calls himself unemployed, while making plans to quadruple the size of his $12 million beach house. He thinks corporations are people. As head of a multimillion dollar firm, he shipped good American jobs overseas and cut thousands more. He`s Mitt Romney – or as voters are starting to call him, Mr. 1 percent.

ANNOUNCER: MoveOn.org political action is responsible for the content of this advertisement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: When you hear that line about cutting thousands of American jobs, think Marion, Indiana, right? Interestingly, what Move On was referencing at the top of the ad was a critique of Mitt Romney that came from the conservative newspaper in New Hampshire called “The Union Leader” which Andrea Mitchell just mentioned moments ago.

This critique of him as Mr. 1 percent is a critique of Romney coming not just from the left but from the right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE MCQUAID, PUBLISHER, NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER: Gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than Mitt Romney. I think it`s going to be Obama`s 99 percent versus the 1 percent and Romney sort of represents the 1 percent.

(END VDIEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Now, to be fair, “The Union Leader” has never really liked Mitt Romney. They basically ate him for lunch when he ran for president in 2008. So, it`s not that weird that “The Union Leader” in New Hampshire isn`t endorsing Mitt Romney right now.

What`s weird is that their criticism is they don`t like Mitt Romney because he`s Mr. 1 percent and so they`re supporting Newt Gingrich instead. That`s amazing in part because Newt Gingrich is also a multimillionaire and in part because of the hilariously unsavory ways in which Newt Gingrich has made some of his money. I was a historian for Freddie Mac, but anybody else who took money off Freddie Mac should go to prison.

But mostly this is an amazing turn of events in the campaign because the whole translation of the 99 percenters` idea into electoral politics is supposed to be that if you`re running for office right now, you ought to have something to offer people who are not being served in this economy. People who are not making it because of the way our economy is structured, the way our political system is structured.

Even the Frank Luntz talking points for Republican governors this week reported by Yahoo! News, these were talking points for how Republicans ought to talk about Occupy Wall Street and the whole 99 percenters concept. Even Frank Luntz in his Republican talking points generating machine had this as advice for Republicans right now. Quote, “The three most important words you can say to an Occupier are, I get it.”

I get it. I get it. So even if you`re not planning to do anything about the plight of the 99 percent, at least say, I get it. At least try to make it seem like you care.

Here`s Newt Gingrich`s version of “I get it” when it comes to the poor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Newt Gingrich has long fancied himself one of the Republican Party`s biggest new idea guys. His latest big idea, putting poor .kids to work as janitors in their own schools.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They`d be dramatically less expensive than unionized janitors. And you`d begin to reestablish the dignity of work. And in very poor neighborhoods, you have to literally reestablish the dignity of work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: OK. Now, this should be seen in part as bait. This sort of thing is usually designed to be deliberately provocative, to make liberals outraged, right? That`s the way conservative politicians like to make themselves seem tough in front of conservative audiences.

The conservative strategy of demonizing and dumping on poor people, attacking them for being lazy and mooching off the system and not understanding work, that`s been a way for Republican politicians to rally their conservative base and rile up liberals for a very long time. I mean, in 1976, when Ronald Reagan was campaigning for the presidency, he went around the country railing against welfare queens, right? People getting rich off welfare benefits, driving Cadillacs, living in mansions with swimming pools because of welfare.

The fact that these welfare queens didn`t seem to exist did not matter as much as the fact that conservative audiences loved this idea. And liberals, of course, were enraged by it. That was almost as valuable. Republicans employed this “eat the poor” strategy for a long time to great political effect. Newt Gingrich, himself, has been doing this for a very long time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: In 1994, Gingrich suggested that the government ship welfare children to orphanages and then even said First Lady Hillary Clinton ought to rent the classic old movie “Boys Town,” with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, to see how an orphanage is run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Newt Gingrich`s suggestion was that the children of welfare recipients should be taken away from them and shipped to orphanages.

Why do you say something like that in politics? Do you think that`s an actual policy that you plan on spinning out and implementing across the country? Or is this just being provocative for political sake?

This is a deliberate strategy. It`s a strategy to bait liberals and to seem un-P.C. and tough to conservatives. It`s why last month Newt Gingrich proposed the whole 9-year-olds should be janitors, and it`s why Gingrich is now doubling down on that idea, that janitors idea in front of conservative audiences whenever he can.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: We should contemplate very seriously that the poorest children in the poorest neighborhoods ought to actually have part-time jobs in the schools they have to go to. And I was promptly attacked: Gingrich wants to trap the poor as janitors.

Then I was told janitors do really dangerous, hard work. Well, the master janitor probably ought to do the dangerous, hard work, but I will tell you personally, I believe the kids could mop the floor and clean out the bathroom and get paid for it and it would be OK.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Yay, the Republican audience loves it and simultaneously cue the liberal outrage. We need that, too. Notice how he puts that in there, light? I was promptly attacked. Badge of honor.

GINGRICH: All the Occupy movement starts with the premise that we owe them everything. We need to reassert something as simple as saying to them: go get a job right after you take a bath.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Take a bath, that`s hysterical. Yay. Cue the liberal outrage.

Newt Gingrich and to a certain extent the entire Republican primary field is operating under an M.O. in which kicking the poor works. This is so great for Republican audiences. It`s not only an applause line. It`s a laugh line.

The problem is that they are operating under that strategy at the same time that even Republican operatives are trying to warn them that this year in this economy, this is a bad idea. The ads against Mitt Romney featuring the Indiana workers, those ads worked in 1994. The 99 percent thing didn`t exist yet as a concept.

How does Mitt Romney, how does Newt Gingrich think those types of ads are going to play now?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`d like to say to the people of Massachusetts that if you think it can`t happen to you, think again, because we thought it wouldn`t happen here, either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown has had kind of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. First a new poll by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst shows the incumbent Republican senator polling four points behind Democrat Elizabeth Warren – registered voters picking her over him 43 percent to 39 percent. That is just barely within margin of error.

So, at best right now, the supposedly very well liked incumbent is in a statistical dead heat with his likely Democratic challenger who hasn`t even won a primary yet.

The other thing that made this week a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad one for the junior senator for Massachusetts was an item in the “Roll Call” newspaper yesterday on Capitol Hill. Quote, “While shepherding his teeny, tiny cutesy dogs on to the Senate subway, Senator Scott Brown had to deliver the following cringe inducing order: `Get on the train, Snuggles.`”

According to “Roll Call,” quote, “After realizing he wasn`t entirely alone on the platform, Senator Brown buried his face in his hands and begged those present, “Don`t ruin my appearance.”

It turns out Scott Brown has a 14-year-old Shih Tzu named Snuggles. Here`s Snuggles in a Humane Society pet photo contest. Here`s Snuggles in a Christmas video. Snuggles the Scott Brown`s Shih Tzu is not exactly a state secret.

But yesterday, as far as we can tell, was the first time that that D.C. media has run an entire feature on the fact that Senator Scott Brown`s dog is a Shih Tzu named Snuggles.

I just like saying it, Senator Scott Brown has a Shih Tzu named Snuggles and a very rugged pickup truck, and also a Shih Tzu named Snuggles. Nothing to be embarrassed about, sir. Hope next week is better.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: OK. So yes, today`s the day we found out that one of the next Republican debates is going to be moderated by Donald Trump, for real. And, yes, this is the day when Jon Huntsman campaign warmed the hearts of people who despair for a country that would have Donald Trump moderate a presidential candidates` debate. When they responded to a question about whether Jon Huntsman would attend said debate. With this statement, and I quote, “LOL.”

So, yes, today was an amazing day in politics. That was before we got the news that the artist formally known as Herman Cain would make a major announcement tomorrow now described by sources to NBC News as his potentially bowing out of the race. Today was the day we were also blessed by the arrival of the Women for Cain Web site featuring stock photo models who you are supposed to believe are Women for Cain, even though they can also be found online as Women for South Africa Sugar, as women for presents, as women for balloons, and as women for this slightly suspicious and potentially hand gesture.

And that was all today before even the parody response Men for Cain Web site came out, which is amazing.

On a day full of politics, this distractingly, wonderfully, both genius and stupid, there was actually really big giant news for the country – big news with big real consequences for country and potentially huge political consequences for the country. The unemployment rate just fell in November from 9.0 percent to 8.6 percent. That is a two-year low for the national unemployment rate. That is great news, right?

It is great news, isn`t it? We should always ask an economist. Let`s ask Jared Bernstein, the former member on President Obama`s team, former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, who`s now a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and MSNBC contributor.

MADDOW: I know enough to know the unemployment rate dropping can seem like a good thing, while disguising some other things that are not good things. Is that the case here? Is this a mixed message or is there reason to be cheerful?

BERNSTEIN: Well, I hate to be the dower economist who has to come in and rain on everybody`s garden party here.

It`s mixed, though. About half of that decline from 9 percent down to 8.6 percent is artificial – in the sense that it only came about because over 300,000 people actually left the labor market in November, Rachel. And you`re only counted as unemployed if you`re actively looking for work. If you give up, you come out of that system. So you`re not counted.

So, about two-tenths of the four-tenth decline was real. We did add jobs, a slow pace, but increases at least in the private sector. But the unemployment rate didn`t really come down as much as it seemed.

MADDOW: In the private sector as you`re saying, we did some jobs, 140,000 private sector jobs added last month. As far as I understand it, 1.7 million private sector jobs added this year which is a half a million ahead of the private sector jobs that we added last year.

Is the overall trend line heading in the right direction? Or do you see it as essentially flat? Do you think we are recovering?

BERNSTEIN: I think it`s heading in the right direction, but it`s heading there way too slowly. Are we recovering? Well, sure, in the sense we`re not sliding backwards. As I said, we`re moving ahead and your job numbers are absolutely correct, if you focus exclusively on the private sector.

Now, public sector, and let`s be very clear, we`re talking about policemen and women, we`re talking about firefighters, schoolteachers, sanitation workers. These workers are important in their communities and states have to balance their budgets. They can`t run budget deficits and they`ve been shedding employment just about every month we`ve been adding those private sector jobs – 20,000 down last month. So that part isn`t – that part`s not moving toward recovery.

MADDOW: In terms of what could be done, what is within reach of government, both economically and politically, what is politically doable -- obviously, the payroll tax extension is under way. It looks like Republicans are maybe softening in their opposition to that, although it is still not done. Unemployment extension is coming up.

And those public sector jobs that you`re talking about, what are the things that you think are feasible, politically and economically, that might make a dent from here on out?

BERNSTEIN: Well, you mentioned the payroll tax and the U.I. Let me say something that`s been somewhat underappreciated in the past few days of reporting on these. Of course, they`re critically important and I support them 100 percent. But remember, they`re already in the 2011 economy. What we`re arguing about is whether they should expire and go away, and I think if you`re concerned about the economy and wellbeing of the unemployed and the middle class, you definitely don`t want them to go away.

But all that does is keep year foot where it is on the accelerator because it`s already in the system. There`s no fiscal impulse, no new added push.

So, we really need to go above and beyond those extensions, but, of course, given those folks behind me in the kind of dithering that you`re seeing around just the extensions, doing more is a heck of a lot to ask more right now.

It shouldn`t be. The obvious solution – take the public sector. I mean, there`s a lot we could do to preserve jobs in the public sector and get those monthly numbers up in both sides of the economy. That`s a tough political lift right now, Rachel.

MADDOW: Jared Bernstein, former member of President Obama`s economic team, former economic adviser to Vice President Biden, now at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and MSNBC contributor – we`re going to have to come up with some sort of like, URL shortener for your title and sometime soon, Jared.

But in the meantime –

BERNSTEIN: Good point.

MADDOW: – I`m always thankful you`re here. Thanks a lot, man.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you, Rachel.

MADDOW: All right. On this show when we make a mistake, we do our best to correct it. Just ahead, a heartfelt department of corrections. For the first time ever, we have to devote the entire department of corrections experience to amphibians, from frogs to newts.

Please stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Main Street. Wall Street can take care of itself. Main Street needs everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they came and offered their help, what did you think?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought, hey, it sounds like a crazy harebrained scheme, let`s try with, what the heck? I don`t have anything more to lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: That crazy harebrained scheme is kind of an amazing one, and it is spreading across the country. Details on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: When police tracked dragged a family`s belongings into the street, quote, “Some of us would kick ash cans and create a general ruckus; this would divert the marshal and others would help the families put the furniture back up. It was a war of attrition.”

Another quote, “We formed a squad. Someone could come in and say someone was put on the street so we`d call this one, that one, say, how would you like to help the people? We did that, boys, girls, elderly men, whoever, we called somebody and said, hey, let`s put the furniture back in.”

We talk about the Great Depression, not our own great recession, but the Great Depression of our grandparents and our great-grandparents today. We tend to talk about hobos and Hoovervilles, people kicked out of their ordinary lives and roaming the countrywide looking for work, lining up at soup kitchens or setting up camp in shacks made out of spare wood or cast off tin they could find. In towns, they called Hooverville after President Herbert Hoover and it was not a compliment.

But Americans who lived through the Great Depression did not necessarily move out of their houses or apartments quietly just because the landlord showed up and said they had to go. Some of them, a lot of them in turns out stood their grounds with help from their neighbors.

The Americans of the Great Depression organized what became known as eviction defense. Like the people putting the furniture back in I just quoted a moment ago from Brooklyn.

Sometimes eviction resistance turned into eviction riots. They rioted in Chicago in August 1931. At least three protesters were killed there after 60,000 people marched against evictions. They rioted in the Bronx in 1932 after families went on rent strike over prices they could no longer afford. They rioted in Cleveland after a bank foreclosed on John and Sophie Sperenga (ph) and the county sheriff kicked them out with their four children.

In Cleveland, the local small home and landowners federation spread the alarm up and down the neighborhood streets. Thousands of people showed up, thousands of people, to defend the Sperega family. Quote, “As police arrived, they were greeted by taunts and jeers and rocks, bricks, sticks and even kitchen utensils. The officers responded with night sticks, tear gas and firehoses.”

Reporter James Steele filed this account in “The Nation” in 1933. Quote, “This is a crowd that won`t scatter, a crowd that`s strangely grim and determined.”

They were determined to defend the family in 1933, the depth of the Great Depression. Now, Cleveland, defending families again in Cleveland in 2011. Not by throwing bricks and sticks and soup ladles but doing this. They`re pitching tents in the yards of a single mother with two kids and the sheriff on the way.

If you`re coming for her, you`re coming for us. That`s been the message from occupy Cleveland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have been wonderful, actually. Keeping me company in the last, since last night when they started piling in helping me get the place cleaned up a little more and organized so I can pack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the people you probably heard on the news have sort of been asking what the Occupy, whatever city you want to put in, they don`t really know what they stand for. Has this told you – how has this told you more about they said?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They stay stand up for the little guy. Definitely. This is Main Street. Wall Street can take care of itself. Main Street needs everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they came and offered their help, what did you think?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought, hey, it sounds like a crazy harebrained scheme, let`s try it, what the heck? I don`t have anything more to lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Occupy Elizabeth Summers` backyard in Cleveland seems to have had an effect. She got a 30-day stay on her eviction, enough time to make out a deal with her bank or plan B, enough time that she and her kids didn`t have to see their stuff hauled out into the street. Main Street turned out for her.

Just months into the great recession, this nation bailed out the banks and all come free, no rules financial sector had turned people`s houses or mortgages into casino chips which Wall Street made a ton of money trading amongst themselves before the whole thing blew up. Wall Street blew up, which blew up the whole economy. Millions of Americans were left without jobs and with this con artist mortgages that they couldn`t pay.

The banks, they got bailed out but the people did not. If you`re broke, just ask Elizabeth Summer – if you`re broke, there is very little help. In October alone, there are hundreds of thousands of foreclosures in the country. The banks seizing people`s homes and throwing them into the street.

This conflagration in the economy started in 2008. But the foreclosure rate in this country is still rising. Technically, the great recession may not even be a recession anymore. But families are still having their possessions dragged to the curb. Good luck and right this way to the homeless shelter.

Is that kind of treatment worth defending against, worth coming to the defense of your neighborhoods now in 2011 just as people thought it was in 1931, in 1932, and 1933 and on and on? That`s becoming a question now among the evolving 99 percent movement around the country.

Ask a family in Atlanta, where the Occupy Atlanta protesters intervened. In an eviction last month, Occupy Atlanta got kicked out of its downtown encampment so they decided instead they`d move to try to save a police officer`s home.

Ask a family in Rochester, New York, which almost lost their home to a foreclosure mill, to the foreclosure mile incidentally where the employees dressed up as families being kicked out of their homes as their costumes for the company Halloween party last year. The firm was trying to move in on a Rochester family to kick them out of their home before a group of experience eviction defenders and new occupiers showed up to help them hold their ground.

Ask the families in Minneapolis where occupiers have shown up with a bull horn and tents and taken direct action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY NEWBY, NORTH MINNEAPOLIS PROTESTER: Occupy`s really made that leap and said it`s time for us to mobilize actions off of the plaza and really enter Main Street in really a dramatic way. And so this is the first time that they`ve said, you know, let`s address real problems that real people are dealing with and see if we can help be a part of the solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: As fall set in, protesters from Occupy Wall Street around the country, particularly around the colder parts of the country, the 99 percenters wondered if they could make it through the winter with maybe huts or cold weather survival gear. They wondered where they would go and how they would continue to occupy. Police departments keep driving them away from public squares.

Did occupying, showing up and staying put in a public space, was that fundamental to the ongoing effectiveness of the movement? And if it is fundamental, then how would they be able to keep occupying and where?

It turns out maybe that the next incarnation of occupy was already taking hold with the foreclosed defenses in Atlanta and Cleveland and Minneapolis and Rochester. Justin Elliot (ph) reporting at Salon.com this week that a new campaign Occupy our Homes kicks off on Tuesday with protesters in 20 cities. The 99 percenters say they will show up at foreclosure auctions and at homes that are at risk of foreclosure, folks who have not been part of an eviction peacefully will get a chance to see how it`s done. They will learn from people who have already done it and then teach other people to do it, too.

They are asking people to sign a pledge that says, quote, “I will resist any attempt by the bank to take my home. If they come to foreclose, I will not go.”

This Occupy Wall Street movement is now truly a movement to occupy everywhere. It is not going away. Necessity is the mother of invention and the coming of winter and the crackdowns from the police around the country have forced this movement into a new evolution. As Scott Olsen, the marine who had a skull fracture at Occupy Oakland said on this show last night, the movement is evolving. The movement is adapting and that`s a good thing.

If the reports we track every day from the movement itself and local press reports are any indication, this movement is spreading, too, geographically spreading, in occupations small and fluid and seemingly too adaptable and too numerous for anyone to shout down altogether.

As of this upcoming week, there appears to be a concerted effort to move it into the neighborhoods where you can see it, where a crisis really lives still. We spend a lot of the time on the show covering politics of the electoral variety. This is politics, too. This is the real deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: OK. A couple of corrections we need to make.

Earlier this week in reporting on the seemingly complicated but quite simple network of Newt Gingrich-related money-making schemes, I noted one of the reasons that Newt Incorporated it`s simpler than it looks is basically all of Newt Incorporated is headquartered in this one building in D.C. Gingrich Communications, the Gingrich Group, Gingrich Productions, the Gingrich Foundation, Gingrich Holdings – all of Newt Inc. is located in this one building at 1425 K Street Northwest in Washington, D.C.

Now, one portion of the Gingrich empire I said was based there was something called American Solutions for Winning the Future. That`s the Newt Gingrich founded deal that you may remember us reporting on the last couple of years, it`s the one where they spam fax you that Newt Gingrich wants to give you a prestigious award and you call to follow-up about what you have to do to collect the award, and it turns it you have to send them $5,000. That`s the one.

After I talked about that, when we were highlighted they had a shared address the other day, I played the cash register sound effect but I should have played the sad trombone sound. We actually had it.

It turns out that American Solutions for Winning the Future has not won. It has lost. American Solutions for Winning the Future is still sort of located in that one Washington building with all of the other present and former Gingrich money-making schemes, like I said.

But after we aired our piece about Newt Incorporated headquarters, after we aired that, we learned from “Bloomberg Businessweek” that although the American Solutions for Winning the Future group still has some of their belongings in that office space on K Street in Washington, they have apparently stopped paying their rent. In fact, they are $20,000 in debt to their landlord.

Sometime in the last few months they decided to ditch the rent checks, they skipped out on the office space and they never handed over the keys. At the American Solutions suite the glass doors are locked, a few chairs, printer and supplies are still scattered inside around the reception area.

Quote, “No one has turned over the keys to the office where they are not paying rent anymore.” Quote, “No one representing American Solutions appeared at an October 6th court hearing about them skipping out on their rent.”

And the person listed as the comptroller for the Gingrich founded group said on the phone she had no idea who was responsible for managing the group`s affairs.

And yesterday, another pitiful detail about the saga, the “Washington Post” reporting that a superior court judge authorized the U.S. Marshals to remove this group`s remaining belongings and put them out on the sidewalk. Now, don`t be too sad. They are already gone but all of their stuff they left behind out on the street.

I don`t think that K Street is going to stand for that stuff being there that long, but – all of that to say I was wrong when I said the Newt Gingrich founded group American Solutions for Winning the Future was located at that K Street building with the rest of Newt Gingrich schemes. Apparently, they fled the place but they left with the rent money and they left their furniture behind and soon it will be on the sidewalk courtesy of the U.S. Marshals.

From what we know of how this Gingrich-founded group worked to scam people out of their money, though, I`m going to bet that there`s going to be a top of the line blast fax machine on the sidewalk if you are in the neighborhood the next few days. Drop in 1425 K Street.

Our second correction is not about Newt but about a frog. Specifically an ongoing international quest to find frogs, toads and salamanders that have been declared missing, species that have not been seen by scientists in years, species that are feared to be extinct. See if you can spot the error in what I said about the search for lost fogs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: There is an international amphibian hunt going on for more species feared extent. So, if you happen to run across a gastric brooding frog, and seriously there`s a reason it has that name, or a real Pescado Stubfoot Toad, or a Mesapotamian Beaked Toad, please call a park ranger and then call us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: My mistake in this case is good news. One of those toads that I said was still missing has been found. It is this guy, the real Pescado Stubfoot Toad. It had been missing in actin since 1995.

It was feared extinct due to a killer fungus but then it turns out, a real Pescado Stubfoot Toad was found. It was found in Ecuador last fall. So, I should not have put it on the still missing list.

In fact, since the search for lost frogs began last year, three of their top 10 missing species have been found which is awesome.

But, of course, there are still some missing amphibians and, again, if you do find one, do please call us. But definitely call somebody more qualified than a cable news show first because we don`t always know.

And I should note this is our first ever all amphibian related department of corrections – thanks to Mr. Gingrich.

All right. That does it for us.

I would say a huge thank you to David Letterman, and to Jo Ann Gora, the president here at Ball State and to everybody who helped us out in our great visit out here today.

We had a really good time. We were really taking care of, really appreciate the hospitality of Muncie, Indiana. I understand why they call you funsies (ph).

Have a great weekend, everybody. Why not kick off your weekend with some time in prison?

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.END

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